The present invention relates to an improved structure for loading a flexible tube into a peristaltic pump.
By way of background, a peristaltic pump includes an eccentrically mounted rotor which advances and recedes relative to the wall of a pump housing to effect pumping of fluid through a tube located therebetween. Periodically this tube must be changed. However, to insert a new tube, it must be progressively pressed downwardly into the portion of maximum spacing between the rotor and the housing. In one type of prior device, this was achieved by coupling a separate rotor-turning member to the rotor to turn it, and a separate pin member was used to press the flexible tube into the maximum open space progressively obtained between the rotor and the housing, as the rotor was rotated by the rotor-turning member. This was awkward and inconvenient in that the rotor-turning member, which was a threaded pin which was inserted into the rotor, could be lost because it was not permanently attached to the rotor, and if it was lost, the rotor could not be turned manually. Furthermore, since the rotor-turning member was a relatively small part, it was frequently dropped and had to be retrieved. In addition, since the tube-inserting member was also not attached to the pump, it also was frequently dropped, and, if lost, a substitute had to be used which may not have had the capability to function properly. It is with overcoming the foregoing deficiencies of one prior type of tube-loading apparatus for a peristaltic pump that the present invention is concerned.